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Foreign Born + Free Energy
Empty Bottle; Fri 5
Once upon a time, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Blue Öyster Cult were just cheap escapes for clock-punching steelworkers. Now, slumming bohemians guzzle the swill, but what about the cheesy cowbell rock? Enter überhipster James Murphy, one record geek on a personal quest to make everything sound like 1978. The LCD Soundsystem man steps away from reviving NYC nightclub cool to dabble in grain-belt bubblegum, producing the gloriously stoopid roller-rink rock of Free Energy.
On the Philly foursome’s debut, Stuck on Nothin’, bleacher-stomping beats and glimmering solos provide the perfect soundtrack to spending a S-a, t-u-r, d-a-y night in a gas-station parking lot. Snarling guitars and sugary strings duke it out in the T. Rex–indebted “All I Know,” while Paul Sprangers sings about sex with Willy Wonka’s vocabulary in “Bang Pop.” The crisp, chugging “Dark Trance” sums up the record’s dweeby, hot-’n’-bothered vibe in the chorus: “Makin’ love to the past.” Yeah, every moment sounds naggingly familiar, burned deep in your brain ages ago by AM radio, but, finally, cool kids’ blues match their brews.
Foreign Born finds far more influence in African highlife than Miller High Life, cooking up thicker and brainier stew. Like a port of call, the Pacific Coast band sponges bits from around the globe on Person to Person. Soukous guitar lines chime over layers of percussion; mandolins strum up an Irish jig. It often sounds like two bands playing at once, but, to the L.A. group’s credit, rather harmoniously. The disparate elements blend seamlessly into laid-back, humble indie-pop—a shoddier Talking Heads—though all the stuffing tends to muffle Matt Popieluch’s gentle, reedy vocals. It’s a more circuitous route to a good time than with Free Energy, but the exotic trek gets you there.
